montsebens's reviews
117 reviews

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Film for Her by Orion Carloto

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emotional inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

4.0

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Keep in mind, I read it in Spanish.
The story has its moments when it completely captivates the reader; other times, if you don’t focus on what’s going on, you’ll be lost the rest of the chapter.
All of the characters are very questionable, which grew to be quite frustrating.

There’s a giant plot twist in part four that quite literally ripped the soul out of my body, and I’m pretty sure it’s still floating around my kitchen. The plot twist is honestly a very simple one that can be predicted if you’re really thinking about it since the beginning, but when you’re too focused on yelling at Klara to stop being so stupid the last thing you expect is a slaps in the face of information in 50 pages.

Nevertheless, I’d recommend this book to a very specifically niche audience of science fiction fans that don’t mind reading a story mainly character based, even if the characters get on your nerves sometimes.

Content Warnings

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Shelley

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Frankenstein is so interesting and captivating I couldn’t put it down… until it was the monster’s turn to speak. By then, I was ready to throw the whole book away.

1984 by George Orwell

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challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Is it the best book ever written? Absolutely not.
Listen, George Orwell is a genius author. The plot of the book — the idea of a dystopian society where the government is the omnipotent power above all else is a concept exploited to be turned realistic. My only issue is the writing — the first half would’ve been much better from a first-person point of view, but the second half is great from a third person view. Also, the unnecessary comments on Julia’s “youthful” body every three sentences drove me insane. Orwell thought it very necessary to remind everyone that Winston is in fact old and Julia is much younger than him. I also think the one full paragraph of a random woman’s physical appearance was misogynistic and completely unnecessary. Besides that, the conclusion of the book was a masterpiece.

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

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adventurous challenging emotional funny inspiring tense fast-paced